. While the Department of Trade (Accidents Investigation Branch) concluded that Ferranti's pilot was to blame for the accident, citing failure to perform a 360° clearing turn prior to take-off, it should be noted that the Tiger Moth (the pilot of which had a total of 100 hours flight time and was authorised to wear spectacles for corrected distant vision) was, crucially, radioless.
Needless to say my godfather never accepted these findings emphasising the fact that the pilot of the Moth had never read the NOTAM covering the special arrangements for the show and which included the requirement of prior notification and disallowed landings on the grass runway towards which the Moth was headed. [The location of the operation of Ferranti's 206 has been allocated by Biggin Hill on the assumption that, with the grass strip closed, the allocated area (including the air space above it) would be free from traffic.]
An excerpt from the report reads:
"The accident would most probably not have happened had the pilot of the Tiger Moth taken the simple precaution of telephoning Biggin Hill before departure and ascertaining if it was possible to use the grass strip, particularly as the NOTAM stated that ALL aircraft will have to use runways 03/21 ONLY and that the grass strip [to which the Tiger Moth was approaching] was closed during the show."
The Biggin Hill disaster of 1977 has been credited with shaping legislation which eventually required all aircraft be radio-equipped but, as with much progress in aviation, sacrifice was required. In this case Hugh Lovett and his four passengers. (RIP)
A more in-depth analysis of this crash (along with the alarming images of Ferranti's 206 being struck by the Moth) will be detailed on the Ferranti site.
More Floating Entroms ..
Enstrom clearly had a garage sale going on in the early 80's for their float gear as can be seen by another one of Dennisimo's 'floating Entroms' below:
Enstrom F28C G-BHAX at Shoreham in December 1980 (Photo: Keith Sowter)
This craft was sold to one of Dennisimo's longstanding clients, Flair Soft Drinks of Leatherhead, Surrey, who also bought (through Dennis) the ex-Ferranti JetRanger G-AWJW.
The last time I saw Cy Rose (Cranfield '79) he had just bought an F28C (I think) - at least it looked similar to the craft above.